Sheri I spoke with my 82 year old father.. he was a pilot in WWII and his memory isn't too perfect, but he told me that he thinks the 1403 might have been the designation for Chanute Field... AAF stood for Army Air Field (the corps was called Army Air CORP back then and wasn't the Air Force till 1947). He said Chanute was a big Basic Training facility and Classification point for Army GI's and also a field where the Motor Pool school and Crew Chief School was located. He believes the ATC stood for Army Training Command or Army Training Course. You have the proper explanation for the ribbons and the sleeve bars (one bar per tour). The little "ruptured duck" lapel pin was issued to all returning Vets. It signified they had served and were honorably discharged. Hope this helps. Norma McGarrey

Norma et al, Gosh! This could drag on. As I e-mailed Sheri and which didn't get in the list, the 1403 AAFBU was the 1403rd AAF Base Unit. The AAF stands for ":Army Air Force", the predecessor of today's USAF. The AAF basic training base that I was sent to and the only one I ever heard of was Shepherd Field, Texas. Chanute was an advanced training base and I don't recall what technical schools were located there but one must have been motor vehicle management/maintenance. Another, I believe, was connected with radio ion. ATC was the Air Transport Command. After WW2 and possible not until the Korean thing, Air Transport Command -ATC became Military Air Transport Service-MATS and the Air Training Command took over the ATC acronym. MATS in the 1950s became MAC for Military Airlift Command. I don't know what the current acronyms are as I retired from USAF in 1970. Gad! What a long time ago. Cheers, George Ude Major, USAF Retired. ----- Original Message ----- From: <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, March 27, 2001 3:20 PM Subject: Re: [MO] World War 2 -- ? for any soldier > Sheri > > I spoke with my 82 year old father.. he was a pilot in WWII and his memory > isn't too perfect, but he told me that he thinks the 1403 might have been the > designation for Chanute Field... AAF stood for Army Air Field (the corps was > called Army Air CORP back then and wasn't the Air Force till 1947). > > He said Chanute was a big Basic Training facility and Classification point > for Army GI's and also a field where the Motor Pool school and Crew Chief > School was located. He believes the ATC stood for Army Training Command or > Army Training Course. > > You have the proper explanation for the ribbons and the sleeve bars (one bar > per tour). > > The little "ruptured duck" lapel pin was issued to all returning Vets. It > signified they had served and were honorably discharged. > > Hope this helps. > > Norma McGarrey > > > ==== Missouri Mailing List ==== > Visit http://www.usgenweb.org > The USGenWeb Project-Archives-Census-Tombstone > > ============================== > Search over 1 Billion names at Ancestry.com! > http://www.ancestry.com/rd/rwlist1.asp